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''Svenska Akademiens ordlista'' (, "Word list of the Swedish Academy"), abbreviated SAOL, is a spelling dictionary published every few years by the
Swedish Academy The Swedish Academy ( sv, Svenska Akademien), founded in 1786 by King Gustav III of Sweden, Gustav III, is one of the Swedish Royal Academies, Royal Academies of Sweden. Its 18 members, who are elected for life, comprise the highest Swedish lang ...
. It is a single volume that is considered the final arbiter of
Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
spelling. Traditionally it carries the motto of the Swedish Academy, ''Snille och Smak'' ("Talent and Taste"), on its blue cloth cover. Whenever a new edition comes out lively discussions about new and changed entries erupt around the country. In some instances the Academy has been ahead of its times and has later had to change entries back to older spellings. ''Jos'' – ''juice'' is probably the most well-known instance. In 2015, the fourteenth edition (containing entries) was published.


History

The history of SAOL is the history of
orthography An orthography is a set of conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, hyphenation, capitalization, word breaks, emphasis, and punctuation. Most transnational languages in the modern period have a writing system, and mos ...
of the
Swedish language Swedish ( ) is a North Germanic language spoken predominantly in Sweden and in parts of Finland. It has at least 10 million native speakers, the fourth most spoken Germanic language and the first among any other of its type in the Nordic countr ...
. While Swedish spelling was an entirely personal business in the Catholic
Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
, its gradual standardization (known as
Modern Swedish Modern Swedish ( sv, nysvenska) is the Linguistics, linguistic term used for the Swedish language from the Bible translation of 1526 to the development of a common national language around 1880. The period can further be divided into ''Early Mode ...
) started in 1526 with the translation of the New testament of the
Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...
(''
Gustav Vasa Bible The Gustav Vasa Bible ( sv, Gustav Vasas bibel) is the common name of the Swedish Bible translation published in 1540–41. The full title is as appears on the right: ''Biblia / Thet är / All then Helgha Scrifft / på Swensko''. The translation ...
''), as part of the
Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...
reformation. The edition was revised in 1703, known as the Swedish Bible of Carolus XII. The
Swedish Academy The Swedish Academy ( sv, Svenska Akademien), founded in 1786 by King Gustav III of Sweden, Gustav III, is one of the Swedish Royal Academies, Royal Academies of Sweden. Its 18 members, who are elected for life, comprise the highest Swedish lang ...
was founded in 1786 with the task of caring for Swedish literature and language, including the publication of a grand dictionary. Spelling evolved slowly in the 18th century and was largely based on
etymology Etymology ()The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p. 633 "Etymology /ˌɛtɪˈmɒlədʒi/ the study of the class in words and the way their meanings have changed throughout time". is the study of the history of the Phonological chan ...
: for instance, because of its historic relationship to English ''heart'' and German ''Herz'', ''hjärta'' was spelled ''hjerta'' in Swedish even though it's pronounced ; the word for "woman" (now ''kvinna'') was spelled ''qvinna'', similar to English ''queen''; the question words ''hvad'', ''hvar'', ''hvilken'' had a silent H, like English ''what'', ''where'', ''which'' still have in most accents. In 1801 the Academy published an official orthography (
Carl Gustaf af Leopold Carl Gustaf af Leopold (1756, Stockholm – 9 November 1829, Stockholm) was a Swedish poet. Biography He attained distinction in Swedish letters, his first work to attract wide attention being his ''Ode on the Birth of the Prince-Royal Gustavus ...
, ''Afhandling om svenska stafsättet'', 266 pages). A shorter version for schools was published by
Carl Jonas Love Almqvist Carl Jonas Love Ludvig Almqvist (28 November 1793 – 26 September 1866) was a Swedish author, romantic poet, romantic critic of political economy, realist, composer and social critic. Biography Carl Jonas Love Almqvist was born in Stockhol ...
, ''Svensk Rättstafnings-Lära'' in 1829. Already in the 1750s, voices had been raised to adopt spelling to pronunciation, but this didn't resonate with the conservatively minded Academy. Public schools were made mandatory in Sweden by law in 1842 and the influence of school teachers increased, as did the pressure to reform Swedish spelling. The most radical reformists wanted to do away with all silent letters and change the remaining ones to a smaller subset of the alphabet. A similar reform movement for
Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...
, which at this time was the written language also in
Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...
, was led by
Rasmus Rask Rasmus Kristian Rask (; born Rasmus Christian Nielsen Rasch; 22 November 1787 – 14 November 1832) was a Danish linguist and philologist. He wrote several grammars and worked on comparative phonology and morphology. Rask traveled extensively to ...
(1787–1832) and his follower Niels Matthias Petersen (1791–1862). In 1869 a pan-Scandinavian orthography congress (''Nordiska rättstavningsmötet'') gathered in
Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...
. Secretary for the Swedish section was
Artur Hazelius Artur Immanuel Hazelius (30 November 1833 – 27 May 1901) was a Swedish teacher, scholar, folklorist and museum director. He was the founder of both the Nordic Museum (''Nordiska museet'') and the Skansen open-air museum in Stockholm. Ba ...
, who in 1871 published the proceedings of the conference. The Academy was not pleased, and as a countermeasure
Johan Erik Rydqvist Johan Erik Rydqvist (20 October 1800 – 17 December 1877) was a Swedish linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precis ...
(1800–1877) published the first edition of SAOL in 1874, based on the orthography in Leopold's work of 1801. A second edition followed in the same year and new ones in 1875, 1880 and the 5th edition in 1883, without much change. To further reform, a Swedish orthographic society (''Svenska rättstavningssällskapet'') was formed on November 28, 1885, chaired by linguist
Adolf Noreen Adolf Gotthard Noreen (13 March 1854, in Östra Ämtervik, Sunne Municipality – 13 June 1925, in Uppsala) was a Swedish linguist who served as a member of the Swedish Academy from 1919 until his death. Noreen studied at Uppsala University and ...
(1854–1925), and published a journal ''Nystavaren. Tidskrift för rättskrivningsfrågor'' (4 volumes, 1886–1898, edited by
Otto Hoppe Otto is a masculine German given name and a surname. It originates as an Old High German short form (variants ''Audo'', '' Odo'', ''Udo'') of Germanic names beginning in ''aud-'', an element meaning "wealth, prosperity". The name is recorded f ...
). There was continued opposition, not least from Academy member Esaias Tegnér Jr. (1843–1928). However, many of the proposed changes, albeit far from all, were introduced in the 6th edition of SAOL in 1889. Many words spelled with E were changed to Ä (''elf'' → ''älf'', ''hjerta'' → ''hjärta'', ''jern'' → ''järn''), and under Q it was stated that Q may at will be replaced with K.Q. (De under denna bokstaf upptagna ord kunna äfven skrifvas med K.)
Svenska Akademiens Ordlista, Sjätte upplagan, 1889, Runeberg.org By a government resolution on November 16, 1889, the spelling used in this edition of SAOL was to be used for teaching in Swedish high schools (''allmänna läroverk'') and teacher colleges (''seminarier''). This was a direct blow against the society's own dictionary published in 1886, and reform movement lost much of its momentum. In the 7th edition of SAOL in 1900, many of the old optional forms with Q were dropped. In 1898, school teachers started to sign mass petitions for further reform. In 1903, the association of Swedish public school teachers (''Sveriges allmänna folkskollärarförening'') requested a government ruling that it "would no longer be considered wrong" (''ej måtte betraktas som fel'') to write TT instead of DT and V instead of F, FV and HV. More associations joined this petition in 1905. A government proposal to this effect was signed on April 7, 1906, by education minister
Fridtjuv Berg Johan Fridtjuv Berg (20 March 1851 – 29 February 1916) was a Swedish school teacher, author, and politician (liberal); he was Minister of Education from 1905 to 1906 and 1911 to 1914 and Member of Parliament from 1891 to 1916. Berg was the so ...
(1851–1916), and put before the parliament of 1907. A protest against the reform signed by 40,000 concerned citizens was handed to the government in 1908, but had no effect. The liberal Fridtjuv Berg was a former school teacher and one of the founding members of the orthographic society. The reform of 1906 was the most radical in the history of Swedish orthography. Spelling with dt, fv and hv is now commonly known as "old spelling" (''gammalstavning''). The new spelling was adopted in schools starting in 1907. It was used from the first edition of
Selma Lagerlöf Selma Ottilia Lovisa Lagerlöf (, , ; 20 November 1858 – 16 March 1940) was a Swedish author. She published her first novel, ''Gösta Berling's Saga'', at the age of 33. She was the first woman to win the 1909 Nobel Prize in Literature, Nobel Pr ...
's geography textbook ''Nils Holgerssons underbara resa genom Sverige'' (1906, ''
The Wonderful Adventures of Nils ''The Wonderful Adventures of Nils'' ( sv, Nils Holgerssons underbara resa genom Sverige, literally ''Nils Holgersson's wonderful journey across Sweden'') is a work of fiction by the Swedish writer Selma Lagerlöf, the first woman to receive th ...
''). The proceedings of the Swedish parliament adopted the new spelling from the year 1913. After endless discussions through the 19th century, a new Swedish Bible translation was finally adopted in 1917, using the new spelling. Sweden's largest printed encyclopedia of all times, the 2nd edition of ''
Nordisk familjebok ''Nordisk familjebok'' (, "Nordic Family Book") is a Swedish encyclopedia that was published in print from between 1876 and 1993, and that is now fully available in digital form via Project Runeberg at Linköping University. Despite their consi ...
'' was started in 1904 and used the old spelling through all 38 volumes until 1926. The Academy introduced the new spelling in the 8th edition of SAOL in 1923. The 9th edition appeared in 1950. In the 10th edition in 1973, the Academy tried to launch new alternative spellings such as ''jos'' ("juice"), without attracting any significant number of followers. The 11th edition of SAOL appeared in 1986 and the 12th edition in 1998. While the letter Q in the 8th edition only listed the letter Q itself, the 11th edition also listed ''quantum satis'', ''quenell'', ''quilt'' and ''quisling''. From the beginning of times, W had in Swedish been considered as a mere decoration of V. In Swedish typography,
blackletter Blackletter (sometimes black letter), also known as Gothic script, Gothic minuscule, or Textura, was a script used throughout Western Europe from approximately 1150 until the 17th century. It continued to be commonly used for the Danish, Norweg ...
(''fraktur'') used W where antiqua used V. With orthographic standardization and spelling reform, W was abandoned except for some proper names and a few loan words such as ''whisky'', ''wobbler'' (also spelled ''visky'' and ''vobbler''), ''whist'' and '' wienerbröd''. In Swedish dictionaries and telephone books, V and W have been sorted as one letter. In the 13th edition of SAOL in 2006, the Academy broke with this tradition, listing W as a letter of its own. This change was sparked by a new influx of loan words such as ''webb'' ("
World Wide Web The World Wide Web (WWW), commonly known as the Web, is an information system enabling documents and other web resources to be accessed over the Internet. Documents and downloadable media are made available to the network through web se ...
").


See also

* ''
Svenska Akademiens ordbok A complete set of ''Svenska Akademiens ordbok'', as of late 2014. The majority of the volumes remain unbound in this set. ''Svenska Akademiens ordbok'' (), abbreviated SAOB, is a dictionary published by the Swedish Academy, with the official titl ...
''


References


Sources

*Ture Johannisson, ''Svenska Akademiens ordlista under 100 år'' (1974)


External links


Swedish Academy
– Official site (in Swedish)
Swedish Academy
– Official site (in English)
Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
– Official site (in Swedish) {{Authority control Swedish non-fiction literature Swedish Academy Swedish dictionaries Online dictionaries Spelling dictionaries Publications established in 1874 1874 establishments in Sweden